Thousands of villagers around the Old Fangak town in Jonglei State were abandoning their homes due to the rising floodwater levels.
The local youth have been struggling to offer assistance amidst the lack of resources.
Fangak is a flood-prone area at the northern outskirts of Jonglei and often remains largely cut off from the rest of the state even during the dry season. The county is encircled by water bodies. The residents get their basic supplies like food and healthcare by air or motorboats, mainly from Juba and the Upper Nile State capital of Malakal.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday evening, a representative of the youth volunteers, Mayel Chuol, said the villages have been submerged with the exception of the payam headquarters where hundreds were currently seeking refuge.
The youth leader said they have since last week been trying to fix broken sections of the dykes, amidst the lack of resources for the rehabilitation.
“We have been working on broken sections of dykes using our bare hands. We only use sandbags filled with soil as barriers against the floods.
“Fangak is our county and we are doing this work voluntarily to save our families,” he stated.
“As we speak, women, children and the elderly were being displaced with their livestock and the situation may only worsen in the coming weeks,” he added.
“Our appeal to our government, aid agencies, and well-wishers is that they provide us with sandbags for dyke rehabilitation and generators to pump out floodwaters. Our people are suffering and the situation will get out of hand if we are not helped to fix the dykes,” Chuol explained.
Fangak County Commissioner Biel Boutrus Biel also decried the dire situation and appealed for assistance to fix the dykes.
“All villages in our six payams are being vacated for the payam headquarters. Each village has a population of 50 to 200 families. The majority of people are camping in Old and New Fangak east which are protected by weak dykes. The situation is dire and in hours, the entire county will be turned into river if the dykes are overrun by the flood,” Biel told Radio Tamazuj.
He added: “We are appealing for sandbags for our youth to fix the dykes, food for them, and generators to pump out access rain water. Additionally, we need motorboats to evacuate those who will be stranded in case we fail and floodwaters take over our county.”
Due to the rise in the water levels in Uganda’s Jinja dam, the neighboring country is expected to release 2,400 cubic meters per second, which is equivalent to 800 water tanks per second pouring downstream into South Sudan.
Already South Sudan’s most affected settlements of Jonglei, Lakes, Unity, Upper Nile, and Warrap were expected to experience unprecedented floods from around July.
In recent years, torrential rains and rising water levels in Lake Victoria, one of Africa’s Great Lakes, have created a vast swampy expanse of floodwater, impacting people’s lives, homes, and livelihoods downstream in South Sudan—one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change.
This rainy season, up to 3.3 million people in the country face potentially unprecedented floods on the horizon, with lives and livelihoods on the line.